The power of being seen can change everything. We see it in the workplace and in our world.
And one way to strengthen empathy and build that connection is through photography. A single photograph—placed in someone’s hands—can affirm dignity, spark connection, and grow empathy on both sides of the lens. That’s the heartbeat of Print the Love, the nonprofit founded 15 years ago by today’s guest, Ceallaigh Smart.
We explore how photography creates empathy, how international travel to under-resourced communities expands perspective, why giving back in any capacity is healing, and how ethical photography and storytelling train our empathy muscle—through permission, protection, and honoring people’s stories.
Ceallaigh also shares a vulnerable personal journey of healing that led to her love of global travel and a desire to serve. That’s the power of being seen.
To access the episode transcript, please scroll down below.
Listen in for…
- The transformation that comes when people see a photo of themselves for the first time.
- The power of being seen.
- The ethics of taking photos of strangers.
- Creating empathy through photography, especially in underserved communities.
- The power of celebrating life’s moments, as they are, right now.
“I want to live in a world where a stranger says, ‘You are beautiful today, no matter what, and here’s a memory for you and your family to keep for a long time to bring you joy.” — Ceallaigh Smart
Episode References:
- Join an international trip with Print the Love: printthelove.org/trips
- Humans of New York – Instagram
- Fuji
- Ultrapro
The Empathy Edge podcast episodes:
- Woodson Martin: Balancing Corporate Success with Humanitarian Work
- Teri Schmidt: Empathy-Infused Team Building for Lasting Impact
- Ashley Jones: How to Courageously Lead and Support Through Grief
About Ceallaigh Smart, Executive Director, Print the Love:
Ceallaigh (pronounced Kelly) founded Print the Love in 2015 and has worked in nonprofits for over 20 years. In addition to her work at Print the Love, Ceallaigh is the Executive Director of Haiti Outreach. With a background and education in Arts Administration (MA), Experiential/Adventure Education and Art Therapy (BA), and Colorado Outward Bound Alum, Ceallaigh brings a unique depth of leadership experiences and knowledge to the international NGO space. She is passionate about humanitarianism, international travel, narcissistic abuse recovery, Jesus, peace activism, running, the arts, self-care, the outdoors, social justice, fighting for the oppressed, crushing the patriarchy, and finding an awesome new keto dessert or mocktail recipe. She currently lives in Minneapolis with her husband, rescue pup, and two amazing teens.
Connect with Ceallaigh:
Print the Love: printthelove.org
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ceallaighsmart
Facebook: facebook.com/printthelove
Instagram: instagram.com/printtheloveorg
Connect with Maria:
Get Maria’s books: Red-Slice.com/books
Hire Maria to speak: Red-Slice.com/Speaker-Maria-Ross
Take the LinkedIn Learning Courses! Leading with Empathy and Balancing Empathy, Accountability, and Results as a Leader
LinkedIn: Maria Ross
Instagram: @redslicemaria
Facebook: Red Slice
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Maria Ross 00:00
Welcome to the empathy edge podcast, the show that proves why cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. I’m your host, Maria Ross, I’m a speaker, author, mom, facilitator and empathy advocate. And here you’ll meet trailblazing leaders and executives, authors and experts who embrace empathy to achieve radical success. We discuss all facets of empathy, from trends and research to the future of work to how to heal societal divisions and collaborate more effectively. Our goal is to redefine success and prove that empathy isn’t just good for society. It’s great for business. The power of being seen can change everything we see, it in the workplace and in our world. And one way to strengthen empathy and build that connection is through photography. A single photograph placed in someone’s hands can affirm dignity, Spark connection and grow empathy on both sides of the lens. That’s the heartbeat of print, the love the nonprofit founded 15 years ago by today’s guest Ceallaigh Smart. They travel to under resourced communities worldwide that do not normally have access to photography, working only with local community leaders and NGOs to gift instant portraits with no ask in return, celebrating people’s value and worth, not just taking their image. They also offer service learning volunteer trips. Lend their cameras to folks trekking to countries on their own, and donate film and equipment directly to international NGOs Ceallaigh has worked in nonprofits for over 20 years, in addition to her work at print the love She’s the executive director of Haiti outreach with a background and education in arts administration, experiential adventure education and art therapy and a Colorado Outward Bound alum, Ceallaigh brings a unique depth of leadership experiences and knowledge to the international NGO space. In this conversation, we explore how photography creates empathy, how international travel to under resourced communities expands perspective, why giving back in any capacity is healing, and how ethical photography and storytelling train our empathy muscle through permission, protection and honoring people’s stories. Ceallaigh also shares a vulnerable personal journey of healing that led to her love of global travel and a desire to serve. That’s the power of being seen such a delightful conversation and an organization you must know about. Take a listen. Welcome Ceallaigh Smart to the empathy edge podcast. I cannot wait to dive into this topic of how photography creates empathy, because I think this is such a great example of different modalities that we can leverage to strengthen our empathy and to also promote empathy, to help us better understand people who are different from us. So welcome to the show.
Ceallaigh Smart 03:17
Yes. Thank you so much for having me. This is great. I am this is a topic that’s really, really close to my heart, and really at the heart of what we do in our in our organization. So I’m excited to dive in. I love it. Okay?
Maria Ross 03:28
And we’re going to hear, I want to hear all about print the love, which is your nonprofit where you give away photos for free in different parts of the world where people don’t have access to photography or photos. So tell us a little bit about your story and how you came to this work, and what is the meaning and purpose behind this work that
Ceallaigh Smart 03:49
you do now. Yeah, absolutely. So it’s really, really simple and yet very complex and magical. So yes, we give away photos to people that literally have never had a photo of themselves, and that is possible in 2025 with our phones, that there are people that just don’t have the resources, the access, the finances to have photos of their families, and this is more millions of people. So we give away to moms in in hospitals when they just had a brand new baby and would never have that in a maternity ward, we go to hospice care to people who are passing away, but they want their family to have a photo. We definitely go to schools where kids in many, many places would never have a school photo, or even just markets family. I mean, the kids are my absolute favorite, but my second favorite are the older adults. They love, love, love getting a photo. And I have a couple stories on that. But how it started is, I’ve always worked in nonprofits. And I was working with a group overseas in Rwanda, actually, as a logistics coordinator, kind of, you know, doing travel busses, right? Like, for a speaking group. And while they were speaking. King. I didn’t necessarily need to be in there, so I went out in the street and started taking photos. And this is definitely before phone. So I had my digital camera. I am not a photographer. I get that a lot. We can go into that. You know, in the back of my camera, when you kind of show the picture, turned it around, they’re giggling. They’re probably in third grade. And, yeah, look at you. Look at you, right? You know how fun it is when you see pictures with you and your friend. And I said, you know, Do you have photos? And they’re like, No, of course we don’t. And I’m like, a light bulb was like, of course they don’t. How would they get that? Or even have money? If you have money at any point, as I’ve learned over the years, for any kind of photo, it’s usually your first photos when you’re 15. And that’s across I’ve been to Nepal, I’ve been to Bolivia, Cambodia, culture is really your first photos around 15. So what about all those years of growing and not having something like that, even if you can finally get a portrait of some kind? So I went back home from that trip in Rwanda. It was like, okay, nonprofit, somebody’s dealing with this, right? Photos are so important to me personally, and I have access to them. Yeah, what I would grab when I go out of the house, right there, if the house was on fire, or, you know, that’s just like, such precious gifts. Oh my gosh, especially for, especially if, when people pass away, or just thinking about your kids, right? Like, my dad has passed away, and I had, that’s what is such a treasure to me, to have those photos with my dad. Yeah, and so I go back to the States. I know I’m going to go back to Rwanda with the group again, and I’m like, doesn’t someone have a Polaroid camera? Don’t they still do that, like, right? Like, can I just give some photos out? Yeah, so I could find nobody doing this, absolutely nobody. There was, like, this is before Google Translate, and so I think there was someone in Brazil that was doing something maybe like that. I could find some one offs where people on blogs said, Hey, I took some photos, went back into town, got them printed, and brought them to a small village or a rural area, and I said, Okay, well, I feel like this is really important. So I did some crowdfunding, and I raised money faster than I ever have. I raise a lot of money these days, but that was the fact. I was like, you know, within a day, saying, Hey, would you my trips paid for, but would you help me buy 1000 pieces of film and a camera to give away to people that have never had this and see if it worked? Like, you know, I didn’t even know if this worked.
Maria Ross 07:31
Yeah. Question, yeah. So yeah. Just, just to interrupt real quick, so are you providing the printed photos for them, or are you giving them cameras?
Ceallaigh Smart 07:40
Oh, okay, so that’s a good question. So we are just giving the photos, okay? Really started out as, like, yeah, just a random act of kindness on the street, right? Like, this isn’t a setup booth or anything like that. I don’t
Maria Ross 07:55
it reminds me, yeah, it reminds me of humans, of New York. I don’t know if you’ve followed that, Instagram handle, and I’ll put a link for my listeners in the show notes where it’s, I don’t know if it’s a group of people or one person that go around New York, capturing people and then capturing their stories and posting that in on social you’re also making me think of another guest that I interviewed, Ashley Jones, who is the founder of Memento Foundation, and they take pictures for people who are in hospice or people who are dying, right so their families can have photos of them and memories of them long after they’re gone. And this came about from her own tragic loss of her baby, her two year old to cancer, to an illness that she knew was going to happen when the child was born. And so I’ll put a link to that episode in the show notes as well. But yeah, there’s this powerful thing about photographs, not only in evoking our memories, but in helping us connect with people. I mean, the whole reason photo journalism is so popular is because a picture can say 1000 words, right? And it’s this idea of understanding, not just a description of someone in another place, or someone with a different lived experience, or someone going through a difficulty. It’s when you actually see it, and you see that you just see what’s going on for them. It’s a different part of our brain that seems to light up. And this is why it’s so important when we’re practicing empathy, is it’s not just about the people that we’re interacting with in our bubble, but also, like, Are you constantly exercising that empathy muscle by looking at art, looking at photographs, looking at, you know, and you know, moving art, documentaries or movies about people who are not like you. I’m curious though. You know, a lot of what that work is about is about helping these families or people who don’t have access to photography. So the. They’re thinking less about empathy for their family members or whatever. What does it do for them to have those pictures? How does it transform what their experience is with their own family, or their understanding of their relationships with the people that you’re taking pictures of? I’m just I’ve never been in I’ve never experienced being in a world where I haven’t seen a picture of my family or of me or of whatever. So what does it do for that? What is the transformation you see for them?
Ceallaigh Smart 10:29
So there’s a couple things at play here, not that they don’t know what photos are, and honestly, photo is photo in pretty much every single language, which is fascinating, uh huh. So they all know what that is. But when you come to a place and there is a connection between you as people creating something that was that was not there before, right? I come to you, Maria, and take your photo and it there’s something that wasn’t there because I’m the photographer, and now there’s a picture of you, but I think the key piece of what we do is that I am very evident about only giving one copy. So if that makes sense, so we don’t keep any copies, so the cameras that we use only print out one just like a Polaroid. There’s a lot of products out there that will keep a digital copy. But I works exclusively with Fuji, and they have a product that I just love, and I’ve always loved that it’s just the one copy. So when I say, you know, if you go to a community and you say, can I give you a photo, they said, No, I don’t know you. What are you doing? Can I give you a photo of just you no copies. What it they’ve never had that it’s and it’s honoring and being seen in the dignity of who they are. Oh, well, can I go brush my hair? Can I go get my mom? Can I go get my brother? Yes. So they know the intrinsic value of holding there’s been so many studies about even just like memory, memory care, the feelings of family when you watch or remember who even just immediately, like we just took this photo, and you immediately feel happy, right? And it’s coming from a stranger. So there’s a moment of being seen by a stranger without I’m not taking anything. I’m not going to go put it on my Facebook. I don’t have it. I’m not going to go do anything. It’s 100% for you. And I think that’s a key element of this empathy piece, right? So it really, you know, understanding each other. Feel understood. Oh, they see me and see that I, you know, I’m pretty enough or handsome enough or want a photo, and that there’s understanding that builds empathy, that builds towards, we say, piece work honestly, because it builds towards and good of understanding each other. Renee Brown, who you probably love like me, you know, has a quote that never underestimate the power of being seen. And most people in these kinds of communities aren’t seen in this way that says you deserve a photo of just you, right? Look, I don’t it doesn’t matter. You know, you’re just great in this moment. There’s nothing else more important. And here’s a perfect photo for you and your mom and your baby and your grandma and, oh, I love that. So it’s really, I think, the ethical piece of saying we are not taking anything. We don’t ask names. We don’t ask, is this your first photo or your eighth photo? Yeah. How old are you now? Some of those things come out naturally because they want to they want
Maria Ross 13:41
to share, right? They’re not. That’s not
Ceallaigh Smart 13:42
share, right? Yeah. And that’s not typical. I work in the NGO space. I have for a long time, and, you know, always asking names and how old are you, and how many times have you used this? And yeah, for grants and funds. And this is really as much as I can tell or try altruistic, yeah. And this is 100% for you, and it’s not about me.
Maria Ross 14:03
I love that so much. Can you I mean, I know I’ve tried to describe it, but I’m wondering if you have a different way to describe it, how photography actually creates empathy? Is it just what I spoke about, which is that you’re seeing someone in their particular situation, and it’s like, why is it different than just describing it or reading about it from the work that you do? What? How do you think it contributes to empathy?
Ceallaigh Smart 14:29
Yeah, so I think it is. It’s the creation of something together that then there’s a shared joy in looking at it together and understanding in that way, really the light. So it does seem silly like you and me are sitting here together in person, and I take a picture of you and your light and image comes out, and we’re both looking at it and saying, it’s so great. And there’s just a shared. Empathy for the other person, right? In a magical way. I can’t tell you how it also transforms a hospital room, like we’ll go to waiting rooms and everyone you know, not that it’s depressing, but people are just
Maria Ross 15:14
They’re anxious. Yeah, they’re, they’re,
Ceallaigh Smart 15:17
Yeah, who knows why they’re there? They’re fan. You know, anything good, bad. You start passing out photos. It transforms the room. Look at mine. Look at mine. Oh, hi, I’m this Ed, right? So it’s the connecting piece that builds empathy. So there’s a little bit more of a personal story for me too in this whole journey. So it wasn’t just I went to Rwanda with work and discovered this, and they saw a need, like, hey, people also need food and water, and those are extremely important. And also, what about a photo? Right? Like, yeah, some people say that’s all you do. And I say, yes, it’s actually really powerful. I do have a background in art therapy, so knowing how seeing yourself and pieces of yourself out in the world really help you grow and heal and again, feel connected like I am here on Earth, and it matters, right? I’m here, right? So the art piece of that and but during that time, I was in an extremely abusive relationship where I was being told, at home, you’re not pretty, you’re not smart. There was another woman. She’s going to be the mom to the your kids. She’s going to take you know, you are nothing, essentially, right? You are the worst of the worst. And this came on more suddenly. This is not a this is not something you just like, fall into relationship, and you’re like, Oh, this is great, right? Like, yeah. After years and chaos came, and when I had an opportunity to leave the country, you know, most people would be like, Oh, you have little kids, and you’re in a figuring out an abusive marriage if you should leave. And sounds like a great idea. And in hindsight, you know, it does look weird, but it was the first time I didn’t have a panic attack when I started to travel internationally like that, because I had gone so far, and really it was so simple that it almost I don’t think I would have really discovered this whole process any other way. I don’t want to live in a world where at home, I’m told how terrible or ugly or smart or boring or that I’m not a good mom. I want to live in a world where a stranger says You are beautiful today no matter what, and here’s a memory for you and your family to keep for a long time to bring you joy. Yeah, celebrate life’s moments. And if you or anyone in the audience has been through something I you know, did develop PTSD where I could really not do much, yeah, yeah, I’d sit at my desk in my office and stare at the wall for eight hours a day and then get up and try to grocery shop, and I couldn’t, you know it was, yeah, you were frozen and trapped inside yourself in those moments. And I said, Well, maybe I can give one photo, right? Like, I think if I had tried to develop this program now, I would over complicated everything, yeah, I would have been like, there needs to be all these programs and these kinds of things, but really it’s been in the simplicity and keeping it that simple, saying you matter, I see you here is a one way to love you. There’s so many ways to love people in the world. One way I want to love you and honor you and give you a gift that I hope you’ll keep for your rest of your life, and me that built empathy for me, for others, to get outside my bubble, to heal by helping
Maria Ross 18:47
others heal by helping for sure,
Ceallaigh Smart 18:49
yeah, right, and then inviting other people to do that with me, to come on trips with me, and seeing people. It’s the photos, but it’s also the way in which we do business. I say we only work with local people. And we’ve heard time and time again, like drivers will get to know and they like, we love, we’ve never seen anyone do this stuff, and we’re like, Do you want a camera? And they start doing it with us. How great. And we’ll ask them about their lives, like, tell us about, you know, because we’re driving around town and, and they’re like, I’ve been driving for 20 years, and no one’s ever asked me about my family, you know, yeah. And, you know, yeah. There was one instance in El Salvador, he said, Do you want to come over and make tortillas with my mom? She makes really good ones. Yes, yes. But that’s
Maria Ross 19:40
how we create, yeah, that’s how we create those connection. Connections, because
Ceallaigh Smart 19:45
he saw us, see regular people in a way that it built trust, yeah, yeah. That then built empathy for him and his family, but also him learning about us. And it going
Maria Ross 20:00
right well, and so thank you for sharing that very personal story. And I really believe, you know, I’ve done a few, a few episodes on this show where we talk about the power of giving back that not only helps people heal, but also can help you feel more committed and engaged to your job and to the people you work with, like that ability to, you know, we talk about team bonding all the time and all these silly things that companies try to do. And I interviewed this one woman, Terry Schmidt, and I will link to her in the show notes, where her company helps teams bond through community service, yes, and Oh, absolutely, combines that with professional development, but there’s an aspect, there’s data, and I know she cited it in the interview that we had, so I’m going to put a link to it. But about how you learn better and you connect better. For some reason, when you’re in acts of service with someone else, it’s there something magical that happens around that. So I can tell that this is what you know, is that the crux of the work that you do, and I want to just shift a little bit because you you started bringing it up about the fact that you were in Rwanda, and this was sort of just part of what you were doing. But how does international travel and serving under resourced communities build empathy in your experience. What has been the power of that? What has been most surprising for you about that? And I know that you, you know, we’ll talk about this in a second towards the end, but you offer, through your nonprofit, you offer trip opportunities to anyone who wants to accompany you in different places that you go to in the world to do the picture taking, so they get to experience these different communities. But specifically, how has that helped you build empathy? Was there something surprising that you learned about yourself or about these other cultures in going to serve them and help their communities as well?
Ceallaigh Smart 21:59
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think you’ve and there’s, it’s not anyone’s fault, but you’ve watched the news and you just think that everyone’s terrible everywhere, yeah, and, well, that’s
Maria Ross 22:11
what sells, right? That’s what people click on, right? And it’s not the reality of
Ceallaigh Smart 22:15
a lot of people, right? And I’ve traveled to 20, over 25 countries and gone to the places where the tourists don’t want to go. I always go to the places I tell the drivers take us to where you wouldn’t take other people, right? And those people are just like you and me. They just have less money, or they live in a different place, but, and that seeing people just like you trying to figure out world, just how can you not have empathy when you have shared experiences and you’re able to share that now where print the love comes into place is usually You can’t just show up at someone’s home or school and just be like, Hey, do you want to have a conversation about being a human with me that usually isn’t. There’s probably people out there that would do that, but it’s weird. It just it doesn’t work. Whereas, if you’re bringing something of a gift that’s not trivial, like, it’s not a trivial even though the photo itself only costs a couple dollars, right? There’s so much more meaning packed into that, and so that that’s what’s opening the door. It’s really the bridge to the discussions for empathy. And you know, they hear terrible things about Americans or white people, or, you know, we can talk about all those things, because there’s been a lot of damage done. There’s, there’s reasons for that, and so to be able to share. I’m just a mom too, and this is what I’m hoping for my kids and and my ex husband, you know, didn’t treat me well either, right in the able to share and building empathy on their side as well, and have that shared connection and then leave as friends. I don’t know how you couldn’t leave those without being changed, right? And really flipping the narrative that you read so much now, are there bad eggs? Yes, but they’re everywhere. They’re in my neighborhood, they’re in your neighborhood, and but 99% of the people I’ve met all over and I’ve met hundreds, I’ve worked with hundreds of NGOs and schools are really, really good people. I think something that’s unique also about print, the love is we sort of do there’s amazing programs out there where you can spend, you know, a month with kids building a school, or building homes in Guatemala, or doing specific, you know, health care services or something. And those are really great. What we do is really like a tour of social services, I almost say, and with that’s been so popular that we’ve had actually multiple people move. To the country that they visited with print the love, Wow, crazy, I know because they fall in love with it. Because you see, you visit a school, and we always talk to the principal and the teachers, and they tell us all about their lives and their goals. And then we go to a nursing home, and they say, these are the programs. So all these social services, like places, we go to a hospital, and we see the new moms or the nurses talk to us about their lives, right? So you see the local fabric of lives and all these little elements of people doing good, right? Like, if each pocket of doing good, and we had to just listen to all the stories, and then an orphanage and how they operate and and they’re all eager to share with us their programs. And so in that way, you’re learning about the little society that I don’t know, yeah, anywhere else, unless you lived there, yeah, maybe not even live there, how you would interact with that many people and see the goodness, yes, the way that we do well.
Maria Ross 26:04
And I, I’m, I mean, so many things are sparking. I’m going in a billion directions in my mind. But you’re, you’re bringing up for me yet another guest that I spoke to who’s a very successful executive. He was a former executive at Salesforce, like reporting to the CEO. His name is Woodson Martin, and I did an episode with him, because his family is very committed to philanthropy. He would always take trips down to the border towns in the US to help people who were just released from from immigration detention, help them find their way to wherever they needed to go. And that that small, grassroots organization eventually became a full fledged nonprofit, but it was such an important part of of his his life and his identity, and for his kids and his wife and to just do this work with all the with all the blessings they’d been given in the world, and then he was able to bring it back to his company, to the point where they were bringing groups of people from Salesforce down to help people that were interested. They would bring teams of people, and they were getting some funding from their company, because it impacted the way he led. It impacted the way he lived, to have these experiences. And one of the questions I asked him, and I hope people will go back and check the link to go to this interview, was, Is it hard for you to sort of to have for re entry, like you go to this environment where you’re meeting these people who are, you know, at the lowest point in their lives, they’re scared, they’re, you know, fleeing violence. They’re, you know, not getting the best treatment when they come here, and then you go back to your, you know, very cushy executive tech life in the Bay Area. And he did share, you know, sometimes it is hard, but when, when you realize that you’re you’re doing the good that you’re doing, it just makes you want to go back and do more, because you do have the resources, and it’s about not feeling guilty. It’s about, you know, we had a whole conversation about it’s about using the resources and the blessings that you have to do good for other people. And I thought, Gosh, that that translates to how he leads his team at work. That translates to how he shows up to be a successful leader and to contribute to his organization, like it’s all connected. And I find that that people that can, you don’t have to go join the Peace Corps and give up everything to do good in the world. You can still, you know, if being a CEO in tech is your dream, if being a corporate lawyer is your dream, if you’re being a doctor or, you know, whatever, an accountant, you can still go after that, but you can also make space in your life to be of service. And I think, you know, if I can be really vulnerable with you, like, this is the thing. I was like that before I got married and had a child, I was very I volunteered a lot more I did, and I haven’t really set that example for my son as well as I’d hoped, and I’m working on that because I want him to see that this is just normal. We live our lives and we take our blessings and we share that with people that don’t have as much. And I know we’re completely going off the rails from like
Maria Ross 29:16
photography and empathy, but all related
Maria Ross 29:18
you made me think about this. And so I want to ask you one other question. Well, two other questions. One is more tactical, so it’s we don’t have to spend too much time on it, but what is the purpose behind only giving them one copy? Because what if they want, what if something happens to it? What if they want to give copies to relatives that aren’t near them? Like, what’s the what’s the purpose of doing that, yeah, so
Ceallaigh Smart 29:43
the one copy thing is really just space so we can only carry so much film. We also do. We have a wonderful partnership with Ultra Pro. They just send us anything we want. We love it. But when I first started doing this, I would handle it. You know, a little two year old a photo, and then they’d start, like, crumpling it, yeah? Oh my gosh. I gotta get them some frames or something. So we essentially give them it’s like a baseball card holder that’s very firm, yeah? And it protects from UV and dust and all those kinds of things and so. But we can only carry so much film, and we go to so many communities where sometimes we have to put away the cameras, to be honest, because everyone comes out and grandmas and grandpas, wheelchairs and babies, and we only can carry so much, especially in rural areas. Yeah, so it’s really just everyone gets one, right? But if there’s like a group. The little kids always want their own photo, right? The teenagers always want group. So if there’s six of them in a group, they have to sit there six times while we each, you know, we do six of the exact same and then each of them get one. Have you ever
Maria Ross 30:55
thought about, do any of them have access to get something in a digital format? Or do most of these?
Ceallaigh Smart 31:00
Yeah, I mean, for sure, we can send and sometimes we do, like, Okay, we have, but it’s really based on a permission, consent. It’s very important to us for all of that. So the people that travel on the trips, some are photographers, very good ones, and some are people like me, who are humanitarians. And they will say, you know, Can I take your picture on my phone and I will send it to you on WhatsApp or something like that? Yeah, do you have a digital copy? And then there’s an agreement with them, and I make sure that, you know, if they don’t speak the language, you know, there’s a lot of yes nuances with that. And if they say, That’s okay, we have a strict rule that no one on our trips would sell any photos or use them in any kind of way without just, well, no selling, of course, yeah, permission from every single person, right?
Maria Ross 31:50
No one’s posting their their photos on social, on their own social media feeds and things like that.
Ceallaigh Smart 31:55
We do have marketing photos, as you can see on our website, right? Of course, yeah, it is a little bit of a dance for us. But there’s many places we go where we literally put all of our other cameras away and only
Maria Ross 32:07
use the ones. Yeah. So is that what you this actually is a perfect lead in to the second question I had. Is that what you mean by ethical photography? Yes, okay, right.
Ceallaigh Smart 32:17
We are not taking anything. We are 100% giving to them. They own it. We take the photo, and then we give it to them, and so we have they own the image. It is theirs to keep and do whatever they want with it. So that’s what’s really ethical about it, that they’re the owner of their own image. But there’s lots of people that tell us what they’re going to do with their photo, right? I’m going to give this to my mom, right? So many men, really, that are working their guards. Or we say, Do you want a photo? Yes, I want to give it to my son. We also had a wonderful experience at a blind school. I heard we were coming into town, and they invited us, and I was like, wow, we never been invited to a blind school. Blind school, yeah. And so we got there, and I asked the teachers, you know, why do they want us? And it’s like a boarding school where then they go home on the weekends, but they stay there during the week, yeah? And they said they really wanted something for their family, like a tactile thing of them that they know is of them that they can give to their even
Maria Ross 33:21
if they can’t see it, even if they
Ceallaigh Smart 33:23
can’t see it, oh, that’s they can hold it in their hand, and they know that it’s a image of them. They loved it. It was one of the most magical places that was in Nepal that we went. So even just the physicality of the piece of paper is something, you know, just like a book, like, I like to read books. Yes, you can do stuff online, but it’s something about that, or something about holding that, well, piece of paper.
Maria Ross 33:52
There’s also because I was a huge photographer, like amateur photographer, not professional photographer. But when the SLR cameras first came out and you could look like you could look like you were a professional photographer. It was great. But I have so many scrapbooks because I was always printing out pictures and making like scrapbooks from trips that I took or things like that. And you know, when we went to digital photography, you know, now my 1000s of pictures are on my phone, and I still print out some pictures that I have or that I framed. There is nothing like being able to go back to my college photo album and flip through actual photos, right? They’re not the best quality, because it was the 90s, right? But like, but to be able to do that, that is something that some people who are like, Why would you print it? Don’t understand. There’s something about, I mean, yes, you flick through your phone, there’s, I don’t know, it’s just not the same and tactile. And I also just want to share this funny story, just talking about photos and how they impact us emotionally and even, like whatever, whatever endorphins, or that, whatever, you know, neurotransmitters, they release in our brain. I was just in a. Event last night with a group of other moms. It was like a boy scout event for our sons. And we were just talking about the age they’re at now and raising them, and how it’s, you know, they’re getting all sassy and whatever. And we were joking about how we look back at our baby at their baby pictures, which are on our phones, just to remind ourselves of how like, cute they were, and we started showing each other the photos of our kids when they were babies, or like, two or three, and just the connection between us as moms in share, even though they were digital in sharing those photos, because we didn’t know each other back then, right? So we’re brand new to each other, and just being able to, like, see this one mom’s picture of her kid with his little rosy cheeks, when he, you know, his little chubby legs, and whatever it was, his little it actually brought us closer to share those photos so I get exactly what you’re saying about how it builds connection and how it builds empathy. So before we wrap up, I don’t want to let this go, because I mentioned it before, this idea of the trips that you take people on. So I’m going to give folks the URL. It’s print the love.org/trips, can you explain a little bit more about that? Because I think that that would be something totally accessible to many of the business professionals and leaders that listen to this podcast as a way that they can have an experience like this and give back without having to quit their jobs and sell all their possessions and go, you know, yeah, travel the world. So can you tell us a little bit about the trips?
Ceallaigh Smart 36:32
Yes, so we’ve traveled to over 27 countries. So far. We’ve given away over 18,000 photos. And so we travel in small groups. It’s very important to me that we be seven or less, because we’re not a tour group. We’re not going to be on a bus. We have to be mobile. But like I mentioned before, it really is being able to see the local community in a different way than really any other organization I’ve seen, you don’t need to be a photographer. We just say you need to be kind. And I mean, the best people sign up for this. I mean, yeah, amazing people like are attracted to doing of
Speaker 1 37:12
course, yeah.
Ceallaigh Smart 37:14
But we also so each and how
Maria Ross 37:17
long are the trips? Yeah. How long are they?
Ceallaigh Smart 37:18
Usually, sometimes, most of them on this continent are seven days. But if we have to go to Africa or Asia and really travel, you know, it takes you 2448, hours, then we usually stay for 12 to 14 days. Okay? Because so then it’s worth it. Yeah, we do, you know, I did say earlier, you know, we try to avoid tourist spots. But if we’re going somewhere, we usually pick one thing that we’re going to do, like, when we went to Zimbabwe, we went to the Victoria Falls, right, yeah, one of the seven wonders of the world. We went to angar Wat. When we went to Cambodia, we’re going to the Galapagos Islands. When we go to Ecuador, right,
Maria Ross 37:53
wow, yeah. You do something fun,
Ceallaigh Smart 37:56
yeah, something just because, also, land and environment is so important to so many of the cultures that we visit that we really want to honor that, and usually those elements, you know, doing even a stuff. We went to the Serengeti when we went to Tanzania, like that is a part of the life there as well. So we want to be a part of that. So it’s, it is a nuanced trip. It’s very much of an adventure. This is not a 9am this 10am this, yeah, we went to a school. The teachers didn’t show up. We’re going to pivot. We went to the hospital. Someone is going to walk us around. So we go to a different clinic. And it’s the most amazing, you know, not to be flexible, yeah, it’s a flexible, but it’s a it’s so much joy I had. Once a woman who worked in a lot of medical missions and and I’m like, Well, why you want to be with us? You know, why are you thinking of coming with us? And she said, Well, I work in the queue, and it’s always crying, and everything you do is about joy. And I was like, oh, so true, because everywhere we go, there’s not one place we’ve gone and that you leave there being like, oh, that sucked. Yeah, everywhere you go is joy.
Maria Ross 39:11
So do you have a translator on the trip with you? Oh yeah, local translator. Okay. Oh yeah, we wouldn’t do it. I was gonna say, yeah. How do you communicate with them.
Ceallaigh Smart 39:21
Well, multiple, it depends. Multiple, it’s sometimes depending on if we’re going to a larger school, exactly.
Maria Ross 39:27
Yeah, I love it. I love it. Well, I of course, will have all the links in the show notes, including the one to the trips, which I’m also going to check out for myself and my son. But we this has been such a great conversation. It’s a little different from what we usually have on the podcast, and I’m so thankful for it, because I think that’s really, you know what we’re talking about is we’re talking about helping professionals be their whole human selves at work, and part of that is making sure that we’re delivering acts of service, but also just understanding the power of photography to build and. A fee and how it can be a bridge to creating those empathetic connections is just so wonderful. So thank you for sharing your organization, your personal story. Thank you for being vulnerable with us and for sharing these wonderful opportunities we are going to have all the links to these and all the things we mentioned as we talked in the show notes, but for anyone that’s exercising while they’re listening to us right now, can you tell us what the best place is to find out more information?
Ceallaigh Smart 40:27
So yeah, print the love.org. Is the best place to just find everything. I know we talked about trips, but we also have a program where you can sign up to get a camera and borrow it if you’re going to work with another organization, and then you just send us back the camera. It’s free. You want to participate in a different way that’s maybe a less less intense as a trip than a trailer. I love it. Okay? So thank you very much for having me. This is great. Use photography to learn about each other, share right? Like bring out your phone and share with others and see the world through their eyes. That’s, yeah, that’s a really good, good point.
Maria Ross 41:05 So love it. Thank you. Thank you for that final gem, and thank you everyone for listening to another episode of the empathy edge podcast. If you like what you heard, you know what to do. Please rate, review and share it with a friend or a colleague, and until next time, please remember that cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Take care and be kind. For more on how to achieve radical success through empathy. Visit the empathy edge calm there. You can listen to past episodes, access show notes and free resources. Book me for a Keynote or workshop and sign up for our email list to get new episodes, insights, news and events. Please follow me on Instagram at Red slice Maria, never forget, empathy is your superpower. Use it to make your work and the world a better place.
